midterms are finally over for me and i couldn't be happier. i had four exams total, reading on tuesday, oral and reading comp on wednesday, and listening and writing today. i was stressing about them a lot this week, but they ended up being not too terrible.

all of the korean i've been learning in class is really formal in structure. it's not really used in normal, everyday conversations, so i don't get to practice it often, which made my interview exam a little more difficult. it also didn't help that every once in a while, a spanish word would pop into my head instead of the korean one. i'm truely starting to believe that only 1/4 of my brain is fully functional.

one of my teacher's is getting married on saturday! she's so sweet. she gave all of us invitations to her wedding reception. apparently, wedding receptions in korea aren't really big, fancy events. guests usually dress very informally, eat some food, give the bride and groom a fat envelope filled with money, and then leave. there isn't really any sort of celebration or party. is that odd?

here's another odd thing: korea doesn't acknowledge daylight savings time. i had no idea that countries were allowed to choose whether they wanted to partake in this event... i just always assumed that it was recognized universally. because korea refuses to participate in this affair, it's been getting dark here at around 5:30pm. and the sun doesn't really start to rise until 7am. i'm not such a big fan of the 14 hour stretch of darkness we have daily...

in completely other news, i ended up voting on tuesday! i found out from a friend that i could go to the us embassy in seoul and vote. it made my week a little more hectic, but it was well worth it (at least it better be!). the embassy itself was not as interesting as i thought is was going to be. i'm not sure what i expected, but i didn't think the waiting room was going to be small, stuffy, and so fragrant of poo. it made me a little sad.

and, just so i get all of my official business done this week, tomorrow i'm skipping out on class and going to the immigration office to file for a visa extension, my alien registration card, and a multiple re-entry permit. i hear that going to immigration is a total pain in the ass, but hopefully i'll get there before a huge line forms... i just hope it doesn't smell like poop.

i'd give my right arm for some pancakes and/or french toast with syrup and bacon right now... i think i'll go to bed and cry now.

it's been so warm here in korea that i keep on forgetting that it's october. i think hit about 75 degrees today which is amazing, but i'm ready for winter... hopefully, we'll get some sort of fall season here where the temperature is cool and crisp. it's by far my favorite season and i miss it.

i had such a great sunday this past weekend. i went to boondang to visit my cousin and aunt, who came up from pusan for the weekend. boondang is a fairly new suburb right outside of seoul, so everything there was clean and quiet. it was such a welcome change from the craziness of the city.

we went to my cousin, hyung-gi's, apartment where he and his wife started feeding me immediately. i was so happy because they served me all this fruit, which i've been craving for so long... i don't know why i just don't buy myself fruit here. there's a fruit stand about 5 minutes away from my dorm. anyway, we waited for my two other cousins to arrive with their husbands and their children, and then we all went to eat kalbi and daeji gogi at a resaurant.

after that, we all walked over to yool-dong park, which is one of the central parks in boondang. it was huge and the scenery was beautiful. it was surrounded by mountains and trees and there was a clear lake in the middle of the park. the kids all rented bicycles and rollarblades and we just spent the rest of the day there, hanging out and eating a lot of icecream and korean snacks. it was such a perfect day.

my cousins' children are all so adorable. there were six of them all together, and all but one of them were under the age of ten. i can't remember the last time i had the opportunity to play with a bunch of little kids. they all called me ee-moh or go-moh (both korean for aunt). and their grasp of the english language was amazing. by the end of the day, i just wanted to take them all home with me... so cute.




and not to completely change the subject, but the past two days, i've happened to glance at my watch at 4:46 exactly... aww...

i think it's pretty safe to assume that i won't be voting in this years presidential election and that makes me really sad.

it wasn't until my freshman year of college that i really started paying attention to politics. and that was only after listening to two of my friends (the only two 22 year old REPUBLICANS i know) talk so passionately about that year's impending election. they definately inspired me to become more informed about my political surroundings. and even though i don't share their conservative views, it was still one of the most important things they've ever done for me. so, thanks girls (you know exactly who you are); sorry i let you down and voted for gore (and by 'sorry,' i mean 'tough shit')!

and now, it's once again an election year. i'm really disappointed that after applying for an absentee ballot TWICE, i have yet to recieve anything in the mail. and i'm not the only american here who hasn't received their ballot, which is even sadder. i suppose there's still the possibilty that it might come soon, but that would be cutting it really close to the deadline, right?

judging from our past election disorganization, i guess i shouldn't be surprised...

rip christopher reeve

ever since i've gotten to seoul, i've become increasingly aware that i have a wisconsin accent. i've only become conscious to this because EVERYONE KEEPS ON TELLING ME ABOUT IT. i've never been told that i've had an accent until i came to korea, and it's getting to the point where it's making me self conscious about my pronounciation. it doesn't really affect me too much when people from different countries tell me that i have an american accent. but it worries me a little when americans tell me that i have a wisconsin accent... what's a wisconsin accent? when i think of a wisco accent, i think of people up north ("hey der... anyone need to go to da store?"). and i hope to God that that's not what they're talking about when they mention mine. and if i do have an accent, that means all of my friends from home must have one too, which is really funny and makes me feel a whole lot better.

i also think i've lost a few brain cells since i've gotten here. maybe it's because i'm trying very hard to learn a new language, but my english seems to have gotten a lot worse. i've taken up the habit of randomly adding an 's' to the end of certain words (soccers, waters, etc.). i found it funny the first couple of times it happened, but now i'm just getting embarressed. maybe this is just one of the unknown side effects of heavy pollution.

today i wrote an entire email in capslock and didn't even realize it until right before i sent it.

my roommate talks in her sleep every night. really loudly. in korean.

you'd think that since i'm in korea and most asians are roughly the same stature, i'd have a much easier time finding clothes that fit me... not true.

http://www.endofworld.net/

this might take a minute to load.

i'm really starting to wonder if i'll ever have a full week of class here. we only had two days of class the first week because we didn't start until a thursday. and then we had time off for chuseok (mon, tues, wed during week two), so we only had two days of class that week also. i actually thought this would be my first full week, but we had today off. yonsei university was holding a writing contest for foreigners, and they needed all the kli teachers to help out with the organization. so, in total, i've had 6 days of class in the three weeks i've been here. no wonder i don't actually feel like i've learned anything yet (other than how to get around the city by subway)...

i love my class so far. maybe not the actual classes, but the people in it and the teachers. everyone is really laid back. there's a lot of korean americans, a couple of russians, a guy from new zealand, and a couple of people from other asian countries. it really helps that our teachers are so great too. somehow i lucked out and got the two sweet teachers, while some of my friends are stuck in classes with teachers who like to 'jokingly' smack them around, etc when they answer incorrectly. but compared to other classes, we get a lot of homework. it's not very hard; just a lot of tedious writing and a little bit of memorization. the spelling is what kills me. especially during our daily quizzes. whenever i don't know how to spell something, i just write it out phonetically and later realize that i missed a couple of characters in some words. i don't even know how to explain it further than that without delving into the whole korean alphabet.

i got a pedicure today. it was lovely. they did an excellent job massaging my feet.

i've started to become accustomed to the coffee in korea and it's bothering me a little. it's all instant coffee crystals and it's super weak. it's weak even when you go to a coffee shop and buy a cup of the (incredibly expensive) perked coffee. when you buy a cup of coffee and you can see through to the bottom of the mug, you can just assume that it's going to taste like coffee flavored water.

i've once again started the arduous task of quitting smoking. it's so difficult here because everyone in the dorms smokes. and cigarettes are only $2 a pack. i can't believe i actually thought i was going to come to korea and quit. i've decided to limit myself to 4 a day, so here's to hoping that i've got a lot of self control!

i officially have the flu. it's been three days now, and it's really no fun to be sick in a foreign country. but the flu has been going around the dorms here for about a week and i was bound to catch it sooner or later.

yesterday, i finally broke down and went to a pharmacy, the only place in korea that sells any sort of medication, over the counter or otherwise. after spending some time telling the old man behind the counter my ailments, he ended up giving me some pills and a little packet of powder that i'm supposed to mix with water and drink down... they've both been sittingon my desk for a day now, untouched. something about both of them seem a little shady to me. and apparently my brain wasn't fully functioning, so i forgot to ask if they would make me drowsy or any other directions i might need to know. but if i'm not feeling better by tonite, you better believe i'll be taking all of the medication down.

i also made $40 yesterday for pretty much doing nothing. when we got out of class, a friend of mine said he was going to record his voice and told me to come along, and having nothing better to do at the time, i did. apparently, lg, a huge company here in korea, wants to update all of their cell phones that they're selling in america. they want to make everything on the phone voice activated, so they need native english speakers to come in and read pages and pages of random numbers and phrases for voice recognition. so i spent yesterday afternoon talking into a microphone saying things like:

"dial *839-324-5436"
"call leroy at his pager"
"dial gonzalez at his office"
"89z-3450-2D24"

i felt bad bc i kept on messing up. whenever there was a '0,' we were supposed to pronounce it as 'Oh' and whenever there was a 'z' we were supposed to say 'zero.' after about 6 pages of numbers, it all begin to blur together and my slight dyslexia of numbers began to kick in. plus, some of the names were kind of funny, so i would start to laugh. whatever. i got $40 for it and the guy there said that if i wanted to make extra cash, they would pay for every person i recruited. now i just need to hurry up and get a tutoring job and all my money problems will be gone.